Facebook F8 download September 23, 2011

Last night the Facebook team revealed a whole new set of products to help connect people together and share their experiences more deeply than ever before. This is on top of the News Feed changes already implemented this week.

Implication: Even before yesterday’s raft of updates was announced, this already provides a clear message to marketers. To become a top story, you need to be relevant. Which comes down to content. Be inspirational and involving. Be active and involved. Provide something that is interesting. And be creative.

So, to the changes announced yesterday.

Timeline

The most significant is the new Timeline. A place where you can see the connected you. It’s really quite lovely. This video explains it rather well:

Implication: It is clear that Facebook is becoming the social layer in your life. As a brand, your apps are the key to become entwined in this Timeline. Apps that are useful, entertaining, imaginative and enduring rather than one-offs. It also means advertising that is more likely to be intertwined with your Timeline become more important so playing with Social Stories rather than the standard ASUs is now a requirement. This also means dialling up your ad budgets.

Apps – from nouns to verbs

Like isn’t dead. It’s just evolved. To actions such as Listening, Reading, Watching, Eating etc. The social layer deepens beyond what has always been a slightly one-dimensional element of Liking. Apps need to become smarter and use Facebook and the way users use Facebook in a smarter way. Spotify shows the way with music. Here you’ll find a list of European launch partners.

Implication: Apps interact with your Timeline. Apps just became a hell of a lot more important than the brazen pursuit of Likes. Which has always been the wrong objective anyway. Facebook has been about what value you can create from your audience there; not just about how many. So this change is hugely welcome. It forces brands to think about how they intervene helpfully and become entwined with their audience rather than just using Facebook as another one-dimensional broadcast channel.